Xie Zhuo and I sat across from each other by candlelight again. Like two dead fish, we sprawled in our chairs.
What had Xiaxia taken Xie Zhuo to do today? Looking at his expression, I couldn’t even be bothered to ask.
“This isn’t going anywhere,” I said, sitting up straight, rallying my spirits for what felt like the hundredth time.
But Xie Zhuo did not. He leaned back in his chair, his expression blank, lost in thought.
I tapped on an empty spot on the table covered with Xie Zhuo’s trinkets. “Pull yourself together! You can’t go on like this! Are we still cutting this marriage bond or not?”
These words lit up Xie Zhuo’s eyes. He too sat up straight, looked back at me, and said resolutely: “Cut…”
Still having a fighting spirit—that’s good.
“Tomorrow.” Remarkably, Xie Zhuo spoke first, giving me advice. “You should pester him to tell stories…”
“That won’t work,” I waved my hand, interrupting him. “He won’t get angry at me for disturbing his rest…” Mentioning this, I felt a bit irritated. “Do you even understand yourself? What makes you angry? Don’t you have any self-awareness? Are you a Buddha?”
Xie Zhuo, as always, ignored my complaints: “Make him tell you stories.”
How novel!
Xie Zhuo wanted the past Xie Zhuo to tell me stories, and believed this would make his past self angry.
“Are you sure?” I doubted him. “Isn’t this anger point of yours a bit far-fetched? Does talking hurt you or something?”
Xie Zhuo’s lips pressed slightly together. He didn’t waste words: “Try it…”
I shook my head, convinced that Xie Zhuo didn’t understand himself, amazed he could come up with such an absurd method. I directly took out the yin-yang fish from my waist: “I’ve thought of a reliable approach.”
Xie Zhuo raised an eyebrow, seemingly doubtful of the word “reliable.”
“Let’s change our strategy. I guess tomorrow, Xie Xuanqing still won’t be able to get up. We can temporarily ignore him. I’ll focus entirely on helping you disrupt my past self’s state of mind. Using this.” I pressed the white fish’s eye.
The black fish at Xie Zhuo’s waist vibrated once.
“Take it out, take it out,” I instructed him. “I’ll modify it for you.” I began tinkering with the small gadget in my hand. “This originally could only transmit speech, but since you’re not one for talking, that would be a waste. I’m adjusting the internal formation structure so that…”
I handed the black fish to him: “This fish eye can now help me see what’s happening around you and transmit it to me in real-time.”
I helped him press the black fish’s eye twice. The black fish’s eye lit up, and my white fish began to emit light, projecting a palm-sized image in front of me—the image showed my appearance as seen by the black fish’s eye.
“Press once to transmit sound, press twice to transmit images. Whoever presses first will transmit from their side. If we both press, we can see what’s happening on each other’s end.”
Finishing my explanation, I looked at Xie Zhuo with pride.
“How about that? With this, tomorrow I can sit in this room, directing operations from afar, achieving victory over my past self from a thousand miles away!”
I couldn’t help but admire myself, sighing, “I am a genius.”
Xie Zhuo looked at me once, then wordlessly dug out the black fish’s eye.
I was shocked: “You…”
Without consulting me, Xie Zhuo snatched the white fish from my hand and similarly removed its eye. He first pressed the black fish’s eye onto his right earlobe. The black fish dissolved into a wisp of energy, leaving a black dot on his earlobe. Then, without explanation, he pressed the white fish’s eye onto my left earlobe.
A white dot immediately appeared on my ear.
“What are you doing!?”
“This is more convenient.” Xie Zhuo touched his right earlobe. Instantly, an image rushed into my mind—it was Xie Zhuo’s current view of me, frozen like a wooden chicken. I even heard his voice directly in my mind: “There won’t be any flaws.”
I shook my head, taking a moment to adjust to the feeling of my consciousness being directly invaded.
This demon…
When he doesn’t act, he doesn’t move at all, but when he does, he goes all out…
“Fine, this works too,” I said to Xie Zhuo. “Tomorrow, just turn this thing on, and I’ll guide you the whole time. I’ll help you offend me to the point where I’ll never want to see you again for all eternity.”
“I hope so.”
His four words came both to my ear and into my mind.
I quickly waved at him: “Turn it off, turn it off, turn it off now.”
Xie Zhuo touched his ear again, then got up and returned to his room.
The next morning, I sent Xie Zhuo off to battle, handing him a bowl of snow water I had dug from the remnants of snow in the bamboo forest: “Xie Zhuo, it all comes down to this. You must follow instructions carefully.”
Xie Zhuo glanced at my bowl, ignored me completely, turned around, and left.
This reaction was expected; I wasn’t upset at all. I repeatedly instructed his retreating figure, “Do exactly what I say! Don’t have your ideas! Just be a tool! Remember! A tool!”
I returned to my room, sat up straight, and prepared for battle.
I had Xie Zhuo put all the items on the table into the qiankun bag to take with him. This way, when he met Xiaxia, I would have plenty of opportunities to have him smash things at the right moment.
Before long, the white dot on my ear lit up, and an image suddenly appeared in my mind. The image didn’t show Xie Zhuo, only me from five hundred years ago. From Xie Zhuo’s perspective, I seemed a bit too short…
Being used to Xie Zhuo being a head taller than me, I hadn’t noticed before. I hadn’t realized that from his perspective, being a head shorter would evoke such a sense of protectiveness…
Although I didn’t need his protection at all…
No, that’s not the point.
The point is they were at the market again…
Shopping again!?